Toshiba offers to talk with Western Digital regarding chip unit sale

On Wednesday it announced it has selected a consortium led by the public-private Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) as a preferred bidder for its prized memory chip business.

Toshiba's much-needed sale could be slowed - or possibly cancelled altogether - as a result of legal action from Western Digital, a joint partner of Tosbhia's that has consistently said the auction process violates prior agreements between the two companies.

To revive its financial standing, Toshiba has put up for sale its profitable Toshiba Memory Corp. chip unit. The framework is likely to change because Western Digital and other manufacturers could potentially join the consortium. "Without a complete overhaul of its organization, Toshiba will have a very hard road to recovery of its reputation and trust, essential ingredients to its existence", said Shuri Fukunaga, chief executive of Burson-Marsteller Japan, a communications consultancy firm that helps companies in crises.

Its presence has made Western Digital reluctant to join the group in its current form due to worries that high-level technology for NAND chips, which provide long-term data storage, could be leaked to its rival, sources familiar with the matter have said.

Tokyo-based Toshiba, whose USA nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric Co. filed for bankruptcy protection in March, said Friday it received an extension of an earlier June deadline to give its earnings report for the fiscal year that ended in March.

TOKYO, June 23 Toshiba Corp plans to ask regulators for an extension for filing its annual financial statement on Friday, the Yomiuri daily reported.

In January the company announced that its USA nuclear unit, Westinghouse, was in financial trouble, ending with it filing for bankruptcy.

Toshiba has also said that it estimates a worse-than-expected negative shareholder's equity of around $5.2 billion as of the end of March.

Regulators have now given Toshiba until August 10 instead of June 30 to make its earnings filing.

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